The present invention relates to the field of carpet manufacture, and more particularly relates to the field of carpets with direction indicia to aid in properly orienting the carpet.
In general, carpet is manufactured by tufting yarn into a backing material which is unrolled and fed into the tufting machine. Consequently, a machine direction is established for the carpet, namely the direction in which the carpet was tufted. In addition, other operations, such as shearing, coating or printing are performed on the carpet as it passes through a line.
It is important for the installer of carpet to be aware of the machine direction of the carpet so that all the adjacent pieces of carpet can be laid down with the same orientation. With some styles, the orientation with respect to machine direction is readily detectable from the face of the carpet. For example, if the carpet uses a particular tufting pattern with different colors of yarn, the resulting carpet face may have a patently directional appearance. Likewise, a carpet may be printed with a pattern which is patently directional.
In contrast, other styles of carpet have directional differences which are not so obvious from the face of the carpet. In particular, the tufting operation itself imparts a directionality in the pile, which directionality may not be readily apparent on the face of the carpet. Nevertheless, if two pieces of carpet are laid next to each other with different orientations, the mismatch can be unsightly.
In addition to the directionality of the pile, the particular tufting pattern and colors of yarn used may produce a pattern on the face of the carpet which is similar in both directions, but not identical. Likewise, the directionality of a particular printed pattern may be less than obvious. In addition, various operations performed on the carpet during manufacture, such as tip shearing or coating, may produce subtle directional differences. Again, such subtle differences may only become apparent after installation, particularly when two pieces of carpet are laid next to each other in a seam.
One solution to this problem has been for the carpet manufacturers to print arrows showing the machine direction on the back of the carpet along one or both of the carpet's edges. Typically, these arrows would be printed on the back of the carpet at or near the end of the carpet manufacturing process.
Naturally, printing these arrows requires an additional manufacturing step. Also, the outer edge of the carpet may get cut off so that the installer ends up with a piece without any directional guide.
In addition, for some carpet manufacturing processes, it is important that the manufacturer maintain the same orientation for the post-tufting operations. In Other words, it is important for the manufacturer to perform such operations as printing, shearing or coating in the same direction in order to insure uniformity between several rolls of the same style of carpet. Printing arrows on the back of the carpet at the end of the carpet manufacturing process does not provide the manufacturer with a directional guide soon enough in the process to be of assistance.